Junior officers and soldiers often criticise Generals for only speaking up for them after they have left office and safely secured their pension (Dannet excepted) but it looks as if the US junior officers have finally plucked up the courage to have their say.

Quite a long article from Kaplan but worth a read and he also raises an interesting point at the end where he reports "what if Generals do stand up to the Civilian leaders"

For example, if generals do speak up, and the president ignores their advice, what should they do then  salute and follow orders, resign en masse or criticize the president publicly? At this level of discussion, the junior and midlevel officers feel uncomfortable, too.

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Is this a US only problem, or despite all the chunterings in our ranks and junior officers can we really expect our generals to speak out publically against the Government?

They then surround themselves with "experts" to help them make those decisions.

The problem for the military is that whilst no one would tell a Doctor or a Lawyer how to do their jobs, all of the politicians have read a copy of "Commando" and therefore are fully equipped to make the military decisions of the day.

No, I don't believe mass resignation of Main Building will make a difference. The Army is hierarchical, with lots of Brigadiers who want to be Generals. I do feel that there's a case for CDS/CGS to be allowed to brief the Defence Select Committee a bit more with the information that they gave to the Minister of Defence.

The National Audit Office and Public Affairs Committee regularly give the Government a slating for it's mismanagement - does much change as a result?

Seems to me the "can do", "make do and mend" attitude has got to be the right thing for the armed forces to be any good but there should be some kind of cut-off when you get to the most senior posts at the interface with the government.

Not sure how you'd do it but if it was a legal requirement for a government to get the top bod to officially sign-off on a plan and the funding etc before anything kicked off. Dunno.